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New FedEx Ground and USPS Arrangement

This is a heads up to members involved in a sale where the goods are sent by FedEx Ground. FedEx and the USPS now have an arrangement whereby FedEx Ground delivers the package to the postal facility in the recipient’s zip code and the USPS completes the delivery to the recipient’s door. I’ve encountered this new arrangement twice in the last ten days, once as the shipper and once as the recipient (neither shipment was audio related).

Based on my experience, you can expect two changes from the former service by FedEx Ground. First, total delivery time can take another day because the USPS delivers the package as part of its once-a-day regular mail run. Whenever the package arrives at the postal facility after that day’s mail has already been sorted and given to the mail carriers, the package won't go out until the next day. Second, FedEx’s tracking number system now tracks the delivery of the package only to the postal facility. This can be disconcerting to the recipient who has not yet received his package but reads on FedEx’s tracking site that the package has been delivered.
dougmc
entrope
482 posts
 
This is nothing new. Shippers use it to cut costs in shipping to rural and super-rural areas where the post office is going anyway but it is not cost effective to send a Fedex truck 60 miles out of the metro area for a single package. My company used FedEx Smartpost for the last three years which is FedEx delivering packages to the USPS DDU (direct distribution unit - the local postal hub) for final delivery.

UPS does the same thing with UPS basic service which is the brown truck dropping packages at the local PO for final delivery.
blindjim
3,092 posts
 
I sure hate to say anything positive about a carrier, as they provide the most concerns in this hobby, BUT the last few times a package has been sent to me, it came inside the Fed ex truch… on time. Today I missed it by not being home at 9.45 A.. saw the tag upon my return an hour later.

Hopefully good luck will bare out.

The contracted carrier has the burden of safe conduct, provided the packaging meets or exceeds the shipping criteria set forth by said carrier.

…and there’s always Pilot, UPS, and others.

so far around here the mailman hasnt delivered me anything Fed Ex shuold have brought.
buconero117
2,311 posts
 
Aside from the additional delivery time, the issue of insurance should tell all that Fedex Ground should never be used. While UPS ground is never perfect, the claims processing of UPS is far better. If you have damage, the receiver can go online and file the claim the same day with the item picked up at your door the very next day. Tracking the claim is also easier.
ckoffend
684 posts
 
No thanks! If I wanted government employees to touch my valuable shipments I would though it out my car going 70 MPH at the road workers. I end up with the same results as using USPS - lost or damaged.

USPS is a joke, just like Amtrak. They should be privatized and charge more for specific area codes and less for others. In rural areas or low density locations, deliveries should be reduced to twice weekly. This approach allows for 1/3 the equipment and employees to cover three times the territory (terr. A = Mon/Thu, terr. B = Tue/Fri, Terr. C = Wed/Sat). But since we are talking about the government, combined with a union, nothing logical will ever result.
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Did you know that at one time the post office only handled letters...no packages. The private Pony Express shipped packages. But they didn't deliver to sparsely populated areas.
It was the Socialist political party which proposed that the Post Office should handle packages, and should deliver everywhere. This was bitterly opposed by many people. "Socialist" they cried...just like today's health care issue. The success of catalog stores like Sears Robuck and Montgomery Ward was made possible by the Postal Service and contributed greatly to modernization of rural America.
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